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New IDE!

Hello forum! It's been a while since I've posted, but I have something you may like. I've been working for ~2 weeks on my own IDE. My goal is to make a fast/lightweight yet powerful IDE in pure Java, hence the programs name Molniya. (Lightning in Russian)

Re: New IDE!

Try to simplify the External Library process. I haven't found an IDE that hasn't pissed me off with the complexity of how connecting to an external library is done. I know I feel weird asking like this, since I am a programmer, but: I want something that just does all that setup crap for me. Provide that in the IDE, and I'll be looking your way.

Also, don't make the mistake that I feel some of the more used IDEs made. Sometimes the simpler the interface, the better the product. Especially when it comes to an IDE. I don't want to fight with my IDE to make code or to work with my project. A basic and simple design that tells me the information that is relevant to me for what I'm doing; that is the design for an IDE that I look for.

Lastly, it doesn't hurt to include a view that allows users to see the connections and dependencies of classes/files graphically. A simple Data Flow Model that shows that this class uses these classes and these files directly. It would go miles for letting developers joining a project mid-way understand the file structure of the project.

Just a few tips and suggestions for what is important to me in an IDE.

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Re: New IDE!

One of the powers of an IDE like Eclipse is that is Open Source - a positive feedback loop thus ensues as programmers improve it to improve there programming. So feature 1: open source. Some of the features I use quite a bit in Eclipse: re-factoring (rename variable/class names and have that change cascade through the project), find and replace (with regular expressions), quick fix (usually out of laziness for importing a class/library).

Re: New IDE!

I really like eclipse's autocomplete, I work with alot of odd syntax and odd libraries so it is really nice to not have to worry about getting the spelling and capitalisation right. Also make it easy to define macros and short cuts.

I need to use special tags like so making something that will allow you to define stuff like that would be great!
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Re: New IDE!

Thanks for all of the replies.

@Aussie I agree with the libraries. The steps required in Eclipse and NB are ridiculous. I want to go along with Google Chrome; simple UI, yet very powerful.

Lastly, it doesn't hurt to include a view that allows users to see the connections and dependencies of classes/files graphically. A simple Data Flow Model that shows that this class uses these classes and these files directly. It would go miles for letting developers joining a project mid-way understand the file structure of the project.

Can you specify more? I want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding you.

@Copeg I planned on making it Open source. I just forgot to specify that. Re-factoring, good idea!

Re: New IDE!

Originally Posted by aussiemcgr

Try to simplify the External Library process. I haven't found an IDE that hasn't pissed me off with the complexity of how connecting to an external library is done. I know I feel weird asking like this, since I am a programmer, but: I want something that just does all that setup crap for me. Provide that in the IDE, and I'll be looking your way.

If you have a library that you're going to use more than once (usually the case) you can set Eclipse up once to use that library, then every project that you want to use that library afterwards will automatically re-use those settings at a click of a button (well, 3 buttons).

I do like Eclipse's incremental compiling as it greatly simplifies the development process. Recordable macros are also a great feature (something similar to Microsoft's VB scripting, though much better).

Good debugging tools are also a must. At a minimum, debugging tools should have breakpoints, stepping, resuming execution, and checking the values of variables. Other good debugging tools are stack traces, thread tools, watches, jumping execution (I'm not sure this is possible with java), and modifying variable values while debugging is also nice (again, don't know if this is possible in Java).

Re: New IDE!

Thanks alot for all of the input!

At the moment I have alot of the "hidden" code finished for a basic IDE. Right now I'm debating internally about the GUI. For the syntax highlighting should I use a styleddocument in a JTextPane, or create my own with a JPanel and Key/Mouse listeners? Honestly, multi-colored text in a Swing component (besides JPanel) is a pain in the a**.